The invention relates to apparatus for recording and storing digital color image information in a human readable fashion onto photographic film for archival storage and more convenient retrieval.
Digital photography is proving to be a very attractive means for capturing images and sharing them over the Internet. Currently, captured digital images are stored on various digital storage media, including magnetic storage media such as tape, floppy diskettes, and computer hard drives, non-volatile semiconductor memory chips, and optical storage media such as writable CD""s and DVD""s. There are two fundamental problems associated with all such digital storage media; they are not archival, and the information contained on them is not human readable without the use of a reader that can translate the digital information to a visible image. As used herein, the term archival storage means storage that will reliably retain the stored information for at least 50 years.
It is widely known that the magnetic coatings on magnetic digital storage media deteriorate in a relatively short time and the information on the media can be lost as the magnetic coatings deteriorate. The storage life of magnetic media is usually judged at less than 10 years. Optical storage media may last longer (e.g. in the neighborhood of 20 years), but is still not considered to be archival. In addition, the storage formats and equipment for reading the digital data are constantly evolving so that so that in a very short amount of time, the equipment needed to recover previously stored digital information becomes obsolete. The information then needs to be transferred to a new storage medium, or it will become very inconvenient to read. Without a convenient way of reading the old digital storage media, and in the absence of a human readable record of what the storage media contains, the digital data becomes easily lost or misplaced, and not easily identified if the storage media is discovered some time in the future.
One of the greatest features of conventional silver halide photography is that it serves well to preserve images for posterity. Since a silver halide image (negative or more so positive) is human readable, the image content can be readily identified without the use of equipment, thereby limiting the chance that a valued image will be inadvertently destroyed, discarded or lost at some time in the more distant future. Silver halide film images arc also easy to store and they take up relatively little space due to their flat format. Although storing silver 10 halide images in the xe2x80x9cshoe boxxe2x80x9d has been derided as the final resting place of photographs, it has proven to be a remarkably economic, convenient and efficient way to keep family images for future generations.
Recognizing the archival storage and human readable advantages of photographic film for storing images, U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,379 issued Feb. 25, 1997 to Williams, proposes a method of recording color images on a monochromatic photographic recording medium by the steps of separating the color image into three color components, one luminance component and two chrominance components, and recording the three color components on adjacent areas of the recording medium, the luminance component being recorded on a larger area than either of the two chrominance components.
Digital cameras that produce instant prints are known, for example, the Olympus Camedia C-211 includes a Polaroid print engine that produces a Polaroid instant print. Due to their expense and volume, these prints are not convenient for archival storage of large numbers of images.
Electronic film writers have long been known in the art, however, all of the known film writers are currently employed in film processing laboratories or graphic arts shops, and are therefore quite complicated and expensive. One of the least expensive film writers available today is the ProPalette 7000 Digital Film Recorder manufactured by the Polaroid Corporation, and selling for about $5,000. At this price, using film for storing digital images is not practical for the amateur photographer.
There exists a need therefore for a low cost digital film recorder that can be used by an amateur photographer for storing digital images captured by a digital camera.
The need is met according to the present invention by providing a digital film recorder for recording a digital image on a strip of photographic film, that includes a light tight housing; a cartridge chamber in the housing for receiving a cartridge of unexposed photographic film; a film receiver in the housing for receiving the film strip from the cartridge; a write head located in the housing between the cartridge chamber and the film receiver, the write head including a linear array of pixels for exposing the film strip a line at a time across the width of the film strip; a film transport for moving the film from the cartridge to the film receiver a line at a time; control electronics for receiving the digital image and controlling the film transport and the write head to write the digital image on the film strip as a plurality of color separations including at least one positive human readable image.
The film recorder according to the present invention has the advantage that it can be produced and sold for a very low cost such that an amateur photographer can store her images on conventional photographic film, thereby providing an archival, human readable storage of personal photographic images captured by a digital camera. The film recorder has the further advantage that the storage medium, photographic film, and the means for developing the film are conveniently and inexpensively available everywhere in the world.